“When people come here, they’re very pleasantly surprised. They enjoy the city, and they want to come back.” This was Mayor Sheila Dixon as quoted in The Examiner cover story on July 13. (“Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon navigates political maelstrom,” July 13) Ms. Dixon also said that “we need to do a better job marketing the city,” presumably to introduce all that it has to offer to potential visitors.

While I too believed these words applied to Baltimore once, I have come to disagree with the mayor’s assessment. I would also like to offer the experiences of a friend’s recent visit as proof that this city’s problems cannot be masked with hotel rooms, gourmet restaurants or an improved marketing campaign.

Our friend’s welcome in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor — where he anchored his sailboat to take advantage of the city’s famous waterfront — began with hostile remarks from water taxi operators on where he couldn’t tie up his small inflatable outboard. Contrary to the harbor master’s explicit instructions and assurances, visiting cruisers are apparently not always welcome in our city. Still, it could have been worse, as our friend witnessed another unsuspecting soul’s outboard intentionally released from its approved hitching post; an unspeakable act amongst mariners in any other port city we have visited. Once on land, the seemingly endless parade of panhandlers and homeless looking for a handout made it a little difficult for him to sit back and “enjoy the city,” or much of anything else, for that matter.

The city’s “welcome” continued the next day when a pause under a restaurant’s awning resulted in a request that both he and his small canine companion seek refuge elsewhere. On his final morning in Baltimore, the morning of July 14, our friend was decidedly not “pleasantly surprised” as a dead female body drifted past him in the waters near the National Aquarium.

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With all due respect to Mayor Dixon — and the city’s ever-changing skyline notwithstanding — I know this is one visitor who won’t be returning to enjoy all that Baltimore has to offer anytime in the near future. There is a reason cities like Savannah, Ga., Charleston, S.C., Norfolk, Va., and even Annapolis offer decidedly different experiences; and it has nothing to do with a clever marketing campaign.

Elli K. Straus

Sparks

Windmill opposition hinders badly needed progress

In the July 19 article, “Md. couple’s 120-foot windmill request approved,” the couple’s neighbors who plan to file zoning appeals need to be educated on modern residential wind turbines. The windmill is going to be built on private property on the couple’s field, yet the neighbors are afraid it will “mar the landscape and create noise.” Get real, folks. Regarding the noise, modern windmills are virtually silent and indiscernible from normal outdoor background noise. Even if it did produce a low hum, it would only be audible if standing directly below the turbine and no worse than a noisy air-conditioning unit. As for its aesthetic appeal, modern windmills are sleek, shiny and beautiful.

America is a nation of innovation and resourceful creativity. However, ignorant people like these neighbors really do a disservice to the community and threaten to hinder the nation’s imperative progress toward energy independence.

Andrew Sottile-Jackson

Baldwin

Columbia Association board shortchanged the community

I write to express my disappointment that having first failed to take an informed leadership role in caring for the Symphony Woods property, the Columbia Association board now fails to take an informed leadership role in determining the property’s future. (“General Growth Properties has new vision for Columbia,” July 20) Frankly, the CA board of directors has missed the boat.

The charrette was years ago. This board had ample time to consult professionals. Instead, they did little but talk to each other in a self-congratulatory bubble. Their failure to work with their own staff, other community organizations, the county and Columbia’s developer have shortchanged us all.

I first point to the failure: the board’s neglect. It allowed Symphony Woods to degenerate into an empty, unused stand of dying trees amid a quickly eroding watershed. I next point to the board’s amateurish attempts to come up with a so-called “plan” for Symphony Woods. It is an extreme and a clear indication that they do not understand the scope of the project. If there is any lesson to be learned from General Growth Property’s community meetings, it is that good design is more than sitting down at a kitchen table with a crayon and paper.

The board has missed the chance to play an intelligent, informed role in planning downtown Columbia. Instead of helping lead the effort to improve Columbia, the board is filled with the alarmists nipping at the heels of the professionals who have been listening to the community and adjusting their plans accordingly. They can play a role, but only a role guided by their own isolationism. Not a role fulfilling their fiscal responsibilities and their opportunities to be a visionary organization. The board is “out of the loop.” Please, do no more harm, and get out of the way of people who actually know what they are doing.

Christopher C. Tsien

Columbia

Society must realize health is more beautiful than a tan

The Examiner’s cover story about melanoma is one of the only articles I’ve read that does not fall into the trap of saying, “To get that healthy glow, try sunless tanning products.” (Re: “Melanoma concerns on the rise as rates climb for women, remain steady for men,” July 24)

As the coordinator of the Maryland Skin Cancer Prevention Program, Roberta Herbst, stated in the article, it’s a hard thing to change society’s norms. Somehow society must change this in order to protect ourselves from a cancer that is preventable. I wish Rachel Peterson continued good health and good luck on her campaign as spokeswoman for the Maryland Skin Cancer Prevention program.

Pamela Weammert

Glen Burnie